The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography

Initially, the government of Jordan permitted only Christian scholars and one atheist to study the scrolls. These scholars focused on connections with Christianity. With the 1967 war, the scrolls came under Israeli control. Here, Gross and Collins discuss the changes in the scholarship when Jewish scholars gained access to the scrolls.

GROSS: And so when Jewish scholars came on, did they see the teacher
completely differently, and did they see the Essenes differently,
looking at a more Jewish interpretation, looking at Jewish history?

COLLINS:
You know, if somebody had been asked, say, in 1960 what was the
importance of the teacher, they would probably have put it in terms of
how he founded this movement, that it was a lot like the early church,
where people shared their possessions, and at least some of them were
celibate, and they tried to live a life of holiness, much like later
monasticism.

But then it wasn't only the increased involvement
of the Jewish scholars, but also some of the other material that came to
light. And one of the big turning points in the study of the scrolls
was in 1984, when a scroll that's called for, QMMT - or it means some of
the works of the law - was presented at a conference in Jerusalem.

And
this scroll actually says pretty explicitly why it was that this group
separated from other Jews. Now that all had to do with minute points of
purity and interpretation of the law relating to purity. There was a
long section also on the religious calendar.

Now this is a kind
of material that, by and large, doesn't interest Christians at all. My
favorite illustration is the purity of liquid streams: If you pour water
from one cup into another, but the second cup is dirty, does the
impurity travel upstream?

Now, I'd say, you know, most
Christians find their eyes glazing over when you get into a debate about
that sort of thing. And it was only when Jewish scholars were brought
into the process that they realized the importance of this text.

GROSS:
I've got to stop you here, because, like, what is the importance of
whether the second cup of water can dirty water going upstream? It seems
very arcane, yeah.

COLLINS: Yes, it is very arcane. But if
you're obsessed with purity, and your greatest fear in life is becoming
impure or being at a stage of impurity, then you worry about this sort
of thing.